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A Keurig for Beer: A Pointless Gadget?

I enjoy drinking from time to time. Thankfully, that’s not a particularly unusual sentiment, so there’s a great deal of alcohol-related things out there in the world. Beer and wine festivals draw people in from all over, brewers do their best to entice customers with special editions, and there’s never a shortage of drink-related gadgets to hit the market. According to an Anheuser-Bush InBev press release reported on by Extra Crispy, the company has teamed up with the single-serve coffee machine makers Keurig to try and create a machine able to produce “beer, spirits, cocktails and mixers.” A neat idea, but will it really prove its worth to the home-brewing world?

Setting aside the spirits, cocktails and mixers, that this machine will be producing beer is intriguing. Not much is known about this joint venture to create a beer Keurig (or “Beeurig” as it BETTER BE CALLED!) but I can see it going one of two ways and both don’t really simplify things.

They somehow create a system that creates your favorite beers that you already know and love. Pop in a “Bud Light” K-cup, add some water, turn on the CO2, and you have a fresh glass of beer in a minute or two.
They go the home-brew route and let you customize what you put into it allowing for a more personal touch to the beer you’re making.
The unfortunate thing is that I don’t see the two companies allowing for truly customizable beer as there has got to be major money in each coffee company making their own coffee pods. I doubt beer companies wouldn’t want a piece of that.

Then there’s the bigger issue of convenience. Keurig machines are great for when you need one cup of coffee. They’ve eliminated the need to make more than one cup at a time and have condensed the relative hassle of constantly having to wash the coffee pot and buy new filters. There’s never been a time where we’ve needed to make a single beer, let alone an entire barrel. I think Keurig machines caught on for their convenience and, to me, there’s not much else in the world that’s more convenient than grabbing a single, already made, cold beer out of your fridge.

However, maybe we should keep an open mind and hope this will be more than just a gadget you’d expect to see in an in-flight magazine.